ESCAPE ROUTE
Gross ends 631-minute goal drought and Brighton scent survival
THEY seem determined to take this to the wire, Brighton and Hove Albion. No matter how eager Cardiff City are to usher them to Premier League safety — and losing to relegated Fulham in a showdown game is pretty much tantamount to unconditional surrender — Brighton can’t quite take the hint.
Where would the excitement be in that? What tension is there in comfortable survival?
No, Brighton seem resolved to make this a fair fight and keep Cardiff in the race to the bitter end.
Offered the chance to as good as secure survival following Cardiff’s defeat at Craven Cottage, they declined to record their first League win since early March, despite the fact they were taking on Newcastle, a team now safe, secure and you would imagine with less desperation about them.
Instead, Brighton proceeded to make their opponents look like Premier League masters, as they puffed their way nervously through an uninspiring first half. To their credit, they roused themselves for the second half.
And they made some significant progress: a goal was scored, Pascal Gross heading in their first for seven games, a run that looked like sending them into a tailspin towards the Championship. So a precious point was gleaned. With that breezy seaside music piped out across the PA at the end, you could almost imagine that safety was in sight. With an away trip to Arsenal and Manchester City at home to come, you can only imagine they will glean one more at best. But 36 points may well be enough, even if Cardiff do at least have hope. As the clock turned to 90 minutes, it seemed Brighton’s bi g moment had come. Anthony Knockaert swung in a cross and it almost hung as Glenn Murray climbed to meet it at the far post. This he has done so many times before. It looked as though the iconic forward would meet i t , head it down and spark the unadulterated celebration. Yet on this occasion, he directed the ball over the bar, grasping his head immediately, aghast at the enormity of the miss.
It might have been a game that no-one particularly wanted to lose but for a period it also seemed to be one in which neither team was prepared to take the initiative to win.
Brighton hadn’t scored in 556 minutes in the League prior to kickoff and weren’t about to be transformed into a gung-ho attacking frenzy simply because of the opportunity Cardiff had offered.
Chris Hughton did field two strikers in Murray and Florin Andone in a search of that elusive goal and a couple of early corners seemed to bode well.
Yet hard though Brighton battled — and they do work extremely diligently for each other — the graft was never matched with sufficient craft. Newcastle matched them in work rate for the opening stages. Nothing seemed likely to budge.
Then Rafa Benitez’s team showed glimpses of real quality and on 19 minutes it told. The problem with sitting back, as Brighton do, is that you invite teams into space. Paul Dummett, the left- sided centre back, took the invitation at face value and advanced with far too much ease.
As such he could deliver a precise curling cross from ten yards outside the area which flew over the heads of Brighton’s defenders and was met by Salomon Rondon. The Venezuelan stood strong and with the power of his chest, directed the ball back into the path of Ayoze Perez, who hit it sweetly and with power to beat Matty Ryan.
That’s Perez’s fifth goal in three games and was all the more impressive as he had taken an earlier knock. Soon after the goal he had to be substituted, Kenedy replacing him.
Up until the interval there was little of note to report in favour of Brighton. Having had the lure of survival dangled in front of them, they seemed wholly incapable of reaching out to grab the prize.
Were it not for the set-pieces from Gross and the energy of Murray there would really have been nothing to cheer. The amount of times lapses in possession led to frustrated groans around The Amex began to create its own dynamic. The players’ inability led to the crowd growing disheartened, which in turn sapped any remaining verve and confidence from the players.
The boos at half time and increasing agitation of the home crowd told their own story: Brighton were inhibited by fear while Newcastle, safe in lower mid-table, seemed to have been freed to cut loose.
Andone didn’t emerge for the second half, Solly March coming on, playing down the right and allowing Murray to occupy the lone striker spot. Within two minutes Brighton were forced into another change: Beram Kayal replaced by Yves Bissouma.
March at least was taking on his man and attempting to deliver crosses, with Murray almost connecting cleanly on 53 minutes.
Bernardo, meanwhile, was combining solid defensive duties with an increasing desire to get forward. Brighton were, at last, taking the game to Newcastle. And when on the hour Gross swung in a corner, Shane Duffy rose to meet it at the far post. On this occasion his header troubled only the side-netting, yet this represented progress.
March again on 64 minutes was getting in behind Matt Ritchie on the right and almost found Murray via a flick. His introduction had sparked his team into some kind of life.
Two minutes later, Knockaert came on for Jose Izquierdo. When the breakthrough came on 76 minutes, inevitably it was from that right wing which was proving so productive. Instead of March, though, it was Bruno, seemingly the oldest of campaigners, who swung in a teasing cross.
Murray met it powerfully, heading it goalwards and Gross made the darting run to connect and head past Martin Dubravka for 1-1.
Gross and Murray fell into each other’s arms while Hughton leapt into the air on the touchline. It was a goal of such importance that inhibitions were dispensed with.